Events

What Boom Have Been Reading September 2018 Edition

Where has September gone? It’s been a bit of a whirlwind month here at Boom and we’re now preparing ourselves for the upcoming winter months.

We’re also really excited to announce our next Drink Digital event, which will be in collaboration with the University of Nottingham. We’ll be talking all about how to “make it” in digital marketing, so if you or someone you know is keen to get into the industry, please do come and join us… it’s free!

We’ve been reading lots about digital marketing over the last month; so if you’d like to learn more about two-factor authentication, how to tackle index bloat or why the colour pink isn’t as rosy as you might think, then look no further.

Wayne Barker

Director Of Online Marketing

Hot off the back of a few articles in the last couple of months, Cyrus turns his attention to category pages and what you need to do to them to make them stand out and rank higher. It also comes with pretty pictures that you can stick to your wall like that Madonna poster you had in the Eighties.

Bill tackles the issues that index bloat and crawl waste can have on your SEO. You don’t want a wonky site that Google struggles to handle as the basis for any content marketing or work that you do on it.

James Walsh

Head of Design

I always take articles from software vendors about why their piece of software is the best with a bowl of salt, but this piece directly from WooCommerce raises some good points (even if it does seem to ignore the real competition in favour of selling WooCommerce over the likes of Wix etc).We moved into WooCommerce development for many reasons, but one of the best things about it is the SEO opportunities it can offer us and our clients.

Chelsea Berry

Digital Marketing Client Manager

Following the August update, you’ll have probably read about the correlation between visibility changes and edits to Google’s search quality rating guidelines. This article looks at what Google’s E-A-T score means for eCommerce websites, and provides a nice overview for webmasters looking to improve their sites.

This article looks at how you can discover the searcher’s intent behind their queries. Often when people say they want to rank for a list of terms, it’s because they assume people who are searching for those queries want to find what they offer. Google continuously looks at ways to provide useful results that match the intent of their users, so it’s worth spending some time checking the keywords you are trying to rank for are realistic.

Lauren Roitman

Digital Marketing Client Manager

Okay, I might be way behind on the times here, but I’ve just discovered Wayback Machine’s “summary” and “sitemap” feature and it’s officially my new favourite thing!

I’ve been stumped trying to reincarnate the sitemap of an old website; I can only crawl the pages that are remaining (not many) and historical crawls are non-existent. Enter the “summary” feature! This lists all of the URLs that the Wayback Machine has a snapshot of from your selected “from” and “to” dates.

I’ve no idea if it’s a 100% accurate reflection of all the pages that once existed on this site, but it’s much more comprehensive than what I’d been able to gather up prior to discovering this feature.

Amy Hunt

Digital Marketing Client Manager

Technical SEO is quite new to me and in recent weeks I’ve been pushing myself to learn more about the technical aspects of search engine optimisation. This neat little checklist from Mindy is a great place to start and get to grips with the basics, in a simple yet effective way.

Roger takes a look at ranking factors and what they mean for “modern” SEO. What metrics are relevant right now? What’s changed since Google took its first steps 20 years ago?

He also uses insight from other key players within the industry such as Bill Slawski to identify trends and patterns as well as predict where things might be heading in the future from a ranking factor point of view.

Like many people, I’m not a major fan of networking. A lot of the conversations either feel a bit forced or include far too many awkward silences. This blog provides some solid tips to help you get over those initial fears and the annoyances of networking, and hopefully help make some authentic connections at your next event!

Lindsay Ball-McQueen

Digital Designer

In this interesting look at the psychology of colour – in particular pink, the factors that have influenced its perception, and how it is possible to harness perceptions of colour to drive behaviour. It is also worth noting that the perception of this particular colour was massively altered by historical events. Didn’t think the colour scheme of your branding/web presence was important? Think again…

Lorcan Fearon

Junior Digital Marketing Executive

I enjoyed reading this rant from Barry Adams about the new open-source initiative AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). I’m still navigating the landscape of digital marketing, as well as the dynamics of the internet in terms of the relationships between big tech companies like Google and smaller websites/companies. Whilst Barry’s position is a strong one, the sentiment holds very true.

Google certainly do seem to hold the internet to ransom and this AMP project could disproportionately affect smaller domains, websites and companies that don’t have the resources to keep up with Google’s constantly shifting and high standards. While Google seem to be pushing this as really positive change for the internet, it’s interesting to read a different take.

Fortunately, I don’t have to try to demonstrate the value of digital marketing here at Boom and thank god for that. However, there are plenty of companies out there who aren’t investing enough time and resources into their digital marketing strategy.

They may have an SEO in their team, but a common complaint is that they aren’t being given the respect, resources and attention they need to achieve their goals. So, if you need help convincing your superiors that they need to buck their ideas up, have a read of these great statistics and use them to your advantage. The question isn’t can you afford to have a good digital marketing strategy. You simply can’t afford not to have one.

Brian shares some up to date SEO tips. These should normally be taken with a pinch of salt. Because Brian has become somewhat of a brand in himself, what works for him isn’t necessarily going to work for everyone. That being said, he’s clearly very good at what he does and his advice is worth listening to. From outreach to on-page optimisation to keyword research, he covers lots of ground.

Claire Brain

Digital Marketing Client Manager

I’ve got to confess I’m a big eCommerce advocate (or should I swap that for addict??), so I got to thinking about why shopping online is so appealing and came across this interesting insight. The speed and ease of online shopping followed by delayed gratification might just be why it works so well.

It could be time to stop focusing on faster delivery and embrace the delay that comes with a bit of online shopping. Perhaps channeling the heightened emotions between purchasing and receiving items bought online could reap more rewards.

Edwina Lambourdiere

PPC Account Manager

Things have changed so dramatically over the last few years when it comes to search visability. This article is a useful insight into how best to “flick the switch” organic and paid strategies using data driven tricks.

Good news for eCommerce businesses; you can save money on your shopping campaigns when using a Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) and you can save even more if you use more than one – which is what I learned from RedBrain at the most recent BrightonSEO. Just pick the partner that fulfills your needs – from self managed to fully managed set-ups, there is plenty to choose from. Some of our customers are already seeing the benefits of enrolling!

Adam Dennis

Web Developer

Obviously, we all want our websites to be as secure as possible; no-one wants their customer data to be compromised by less than desirable individuals. A common technique used for security hardening on websites is two-factor authentication, but how effective is this technique?

David Allsop

Web Developer

Ever uninstalled a WordPress plugin? You’d think uninstalling that plugin would remove its data from your website, right? In some cases yes – but in most cases, no. This article highlights the different places you may find data left behind from a plugin including database tables, options and files. It also gives you some pointers on deleting data after uninstalling commonly used plugins such as WordFence, Gravity Forms, Yoast and more.

Philippa Law

Operations Manager for The Coffee Tasting Club

Today, consumers flock to social media to rant, prompt and praise brands. Whilst the praise is always a great high for any brand, not far behind it follows the rants and complaints. Although we (as a company) are expected to take these particular comments with a pinch of salt, it is becoming more and more common for consumers to decide on their purchases by what they read from previous customers online. Although this isn’t a bad thing, the complaints will always run sour and may impact the decision of that potential new customer to use your services/purchase your products.

From personal experience, I truly believe the saying “the customer is always right” not in the sense of, the customer is always right but more as “this customer puts money in my pocket so I must listen, engage and help”. I will always respond and offer help wherever needed, even if we’re in the wrong but unfortunately, I realise that this isn’t always the case for many online businesses.

This article has a brilliant way of explaining the issues behind ignoring bad brand mentions and gives really useful tips on how to engage with consumers online.

Amy Hunt About the author

Amy started out as a Digital Marketing Executive here at Boom but graduated in 2018 to Digital Marketing Client Manager. In her varied role, she helps to organise the office, events and recruitment, as well as working on digital marketing projects for different clients including; SEO, content writing and outreach. Amy also runs the Boom website.